


Kiss and make up

by Multifandom_damnation



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Accidental Bonding, Billy Hargrove Being an Asshole, Billy Hargrove Needs a Hug, Billy Hargrove Redemption, Cruelty, Emotional Hurt, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Lifeguard Billy Hargrove, Post-Season/Series 03, Sibling Bonding, Swimming Pools
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-10-01 22:30:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20426207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: Max politely suggests to Billy one day while he's on duty at the pool that he should apologise to Steve for beating him up that one time and almost killing him a whole heap of times afterwards, and really, he was trying to be a better brother, so how could he say no?It doesn't end as well as Max probably would have wanted. In fact, it ends very, very badly. So badly, that even Billy was surprised at the outcome, and wondered which man was the bigger piece of shit.





	Kiss and make up

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't how I wanted this to turn out but I tried my best. It was really hard to write the boys as both nice to each other but hating each other but wanting to make a friendship work. You know? And Billy is especially hard because we know what Steve is like when he's being nice, but Billy was never given a chance to be a decent person, so I'm basically just guessing. I think the main thing I want to get through is that Billy is TRYING to be nice and not show it, because he doesn't like Steve, but he knows that he COULD given time. But anyway, I think it could have turned out worse (I think the part between Max and Billy redeems it, personally) but I'd like to know what you think, so let me know if you enjoyed it x Thanks for reading x
> 
> Also, none of this probably makes sense because I haven't actually seen the show yet OOPS-

It was a wonder to everyone, especially to Billy himself, how he had managed to keep his job at the pool. Maybe because nobody knew how involved he was with the destruction of the town, or maybe because everyone who knew was dead.

Either way, he wasn’t going to complain. He was the best lifeguard that the Hawkins pool had ever employed, and with the ladies being enamoured by him and children being afraid of him, there were very little mishaps while he was around. And he got to see Max a lot more often. She liked going to the pool to see him, because he was hardly home most of the time, these days. It was a way she could talk to him without Neil knowing about it.

Summer meant that the pool was always packed full of people, mothers and their children alike, and while Mrs Wheeler still came, she didn’t look shyly over at Billy quite as much as she did before, not like the other ladies. That was fine by him. He had more to focus on than whether some kids mum thought he was hot.

But he was very good at his job. So good, in fact, that he was the only lifeguard at the pool for a good couple of weeks after everything had died down, and there hadn’t been any problems. No drownings, no injuries, no children running away screaming to their parents about another kid being mean to them. Hell, there hadn’t even been a single sunburn while he was on the job. There was a pump of it near the entrance, and another by his station, so if anyone, parent or kid walked by and didn’t have the milky texture of badly-applied sunscreen on their skin, he would stop them and make them put it on, otherwise they’d be ejected from the pool. He liked telling people what to do.

In the far corner, Max was splashing around with her friends, but Billy couldn’t help but notice that two of them were missing- the weird little girl and the boy with the stupid haircut. The Byers? No, that didn’t make any sense, the girl was Hopper’s kid, there was no reason for her to be out of state with the Byers…

It didn’t matter. Max was smiling, laughing, and hanging off the arm of that obnoxious kid who screamed like a mating cat. Sinclair? Billy wasn’t sure. Mrs Wheeler's son looked downtrodden like someone had pissed on his birthday cake, and Billy wanted to paddle over there and slap that look off his face. But he didn’t, because Max would be mad at him, and that was the last thing he wanted.

She was having fun, which was unusual because he was used to her being grumpy and pouting and doing everything she could to avoid fun. It was as surprising as it was unusual. After everything that had happened, everything she had done and seen, he was a little shocked to see her smiling in the sun at the pool.

He pulled his eye away from Max to look at the women lounging on their sun chairs. They kept sneaking glances at him from over their sunglasses and around their fluttering fans. He didn’t mind, let them look. It didn’t matter to him either way. Mrs Wheeler looked ashamed and stuck her nose securely in her book, refusing to look up anywhere near his direction, as if the moment she rejected Billy in the supply shed so long ago was permanently etched into her memory. Maybe she would never look at him the same way again? Billy didn’t really care. He didn’t love her like he made her think he did, and it was mostly the monster inside of him craving for another victim to feed on. He didn’t really want her, never did, but it was fun to tease the women like that. He knew how much they looked at him, every time he walked out of breakroom, their eyes would be on him. But he really didn’t care. They weren’t his type, anyway.

There was a loud splash from below him and he snapped his head away from the sunbathing women to look down at the pool, where Max was swimming towards him. When she reached the edge of the pool, she folded her arms over the tiles and rested her chin on them. There was a slight frown on her face. “What are you looking at Mike’s mum for?”

“I just wanted to make sure she was wearing sunscreen,” Billy said, hunching over a little in his chair so he could see her better. “I couldn’t tell. What’s wrong?”

The lie seemed to satisfy Max because she didn’t bring it up again. “Nothing,” she shrugged. “I guess I just wanted to see how you were doing. Also because I kinda… need to ask you for a favour.”

Now it was Billy’s turn to frown. In all the time that Billy had known her, Max had never asked him for anything close to a favour, and especially not now, when they were finally starting to build their tentative alliance. Friendship, maybe? Not quite family, not yet. “Uh… yeah? What do you need?”

Max bit her lip and looked like she already regretted asking, despite the fact that she hadn’t actually asked for anything. “I was wondering,” she took a deep breath and shut her eyes tight. The next thing she spoke came out so quickly that Billy wasn’t sure he heard her right. _“CanyoupleaseapologiseandbefriendswithSteve?”_

“Steve?” Billy blinked. “You mean Harrington? _Apologise_? Max, what the hell are you on about?”

If Billy didn’t know her any better, he would have thought that Max was about to sink into the water and hide from him forever. But Max had more balls than that, so she looked him in the eye and continued without preamble. “Look,” she began. “Steve was always there for me when no-one else was. He saved my life a couple of times, too. And if we’re going to start being close, I want my brother and my… babysitter to be friends. Because you both mean a lot to me, and I don’t want you guys to hate each other anymore. It’s not fair to me, and it’s not fair to both of you.”

“Max, why the hell do I have to apologise to Harrington?” Billy asked. “I hardly spoke to him. I can’t stand the kid.”

“Well, you did beat him up pretty badly,” Max said. “Like, really badly. He was unconscious. We had to carry him into the back of the car.” She said, which, you know, was true. She took another, deeper breath. “Billy, he was there for me when you weren’t,” Max said carefully and Billy felt like an absolute asshole because he knew that she was _right_. “And I think for that, you at least need to thank him. Please, Billy? Do it for me?”

Billy must have been growing soft, he must have, there’s no way possible that he could be caving already- “Fine,” he sighed. “Not now though, alright? I’m still on shift.”

“You can take 5 minutes out of standing watch to swim to the other side of the pool,” Max scoffed. “A little exercise isn’t going to kill you.”

Confused, Billy glanced around the pool at all the children splashing water around and the parents not paying attention at the sidelines. There was no sign of Steve Harrington in or out of the pool and Billy hadn’t even seen him sashay through the entrance. “Uh… Max, I hate to tell you, but he’s not here.”

“What?” Max used her arms to push herself out of the water and lean over the tiles so she could see the car park, and search for the place that Steve had parked. His car wasn’t there. “But- he walked us in! He paid for our admission! He was just here?”

“Well, wherever he is, he isn’t here now,” Billy said, settling back into his seat. “Which means I can’t go and talk to him now, and you kids need to find out how you’re getting home.”

“Can you just… go look for him? Leave early and drive around for a bit?” Max asked hopefully but she didn’t seem to believe what she was saying.

Trying not to sigh, Billy shook his head. “I can’t, Max. The new lady is almost as dumb as Heather, and if Brian tells me one more time about all the zits he has, I’m going to break his nose. They’re not trustworthy enough to be left alone without supervision, and if I leave them alone trying to look for Harrington, I’ll probably get fired for endangering everyone here, and I _need_ this job.”

Max seemed to deflate a little bit, and Billy felt like an asshole, but there was no way in hell that he was going to leave Stupid Sarah and Big-headed Brian alone to take care of the pool. “Yeah, I know you do. Sorry, it was a silly thing to ask. Uh, after work, could you maybe…”

“I’ll go look for him as soon as my shift ends,” Billy promised without a second thought and Max looked up at him, smiling. Billy loved that smile. “But until then, you go and have fun with your friends. I’ll talk to you later tonight, ok? After I find him.”

Grinning, Max surged up out of the pool and fell backwards into the water, paddling away from him backwards. “Kiss and make up,” she called at him with a smile in her voice. Billy almost smiled back. Then Max was gone, turning around and paddling back towards her friends who had apparently noticed that their babysitter was gone, and there was something within him that was a little annoyed by Max’s request, but if it meant staying in her good books, then he would be fine if it-

“Hey!” Billy called out to a bigger kid trying to drown a smaller boy under his inflatable crocodile that was just barely keeping him above the water as his other friends laughed. He snapped his head up when Billy caught his attention, and now that he wasn’t paying any mind, the boy under his floaty was finally able to swim free and splutter. “If I ever catch you stupid kids doing anything like that again, I’ll beat you nine ways till Sunday and you can kiss your privileges goodbye. Understand?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Billy saw Max grin smugly, and it all felt worth it.

Billy clocked out later than usual that night. He wanted to make sure Sarah and Brian had both gone and neither had forgotten any valuable item like their car keys or their house keys or their wallets or something just as important like they usually did before he made his way to his own car. Really, he was putting off this ‘look for Steve and be friends’ thing that Max was making him do, and maybe he was hoping that he could find Steve hanging around the pool somewhere so Billy didn’t have to drive around in the dark looking for him. Oh well, it got him out of the house. What’s one more drive?

He drove through the back roads paved with gravel and dirt, hoping that maybe Steve took the same route that Billy did when he wanted to be alone, and surprisingly he did. Well, not really. Billy had expected to see Steve’s car parked somewhere off the side of the road, maybe the headlights were on, maybe he was taking a smoke under the stars, maybe he was having a nap in the backseat after drinking too much and Billy would have to haul his ass back home and then come for his car in the morning.

What he didn’t expect was to see a group of cars with their headlights on, all pointed at the car facing away from him, a group of boys gathered around and laughing, and Steve Harrington getting the shit beaten out of him on the hood of some punk’s car. Billy did the only thing that he could think of.

Without hesitation, he pulled up onto the side of the road, flared his headlights at the group, got out of his car real slow, and looked each hot-shot in the eye. “Just what the fuck do you think you’re doing here, huh?” Billy took a step forward. Nobody knew what he did during the Fourth of July festivities or all the people he hurt under the Mind Flayers control, but they knew who he was and what he could do. They took a very wise step back. The one at the front dropped Steve and he fell back onto the car, coughing. Billy kept walking until he was close enough to them that he didn’t need to raise his voice. “Scram.”

They did. One of them pushed Steve away from his car as he dived into the driver’s seat and with the squealing of tires and the panicked voices of scared little boys, the cars drove away into the night, and Billy and Steve were left alone in the darkness.

Billy marched up to Steve and hefted him up off the ground, and Steve and failed to yank his arm away. “What the hell are you doing here?” He snapped, wiping the blood off his chin with the back of his hand. “I didn’t need your help.”

“Of course you didn’t. You had it all under control, right? Getting beaten up is pretty much your thing now, I just take such joy out of saving your ass and hauling it to my car, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside,” he shoved Steve towards the passenger side door before walking around to the driver’s side. “Get your ass in the car, Harrington.”

Steve glared at Billy over the roof. “Why the hell should I listen to a word you say?”

Honestly, Billy half-hoped that Steve would say something characteristically stupid and march away from Billy and walk home by himself, but he couldn’t do that to Max. He pointed his finger at Steve. “I made a promise to my sister that I would keep an eye on you and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. So either you get your ass in the car or I make you.” That wasn’t necessarily true, but Billy wasn’t about to tell him that. He slid into his seat without waiting for an answer and revved the engine to prove to Steve that he was serious.

When Billy peeled out onto the road, he kept his fingers tight on the steering wheel, one eye on the road but also one eye on Steve, who he was slightly worried about jumping out of the car just to escape him. But he seemed to be fine, and when Billy gruffly snapped at him to put on his seatbelt before he got pulled over, he obeyed.

They drove in uncomfortable silence for a while, nothing but the steady hum of the engine, before Billy spoke. “So,” he began. “Any particular reason why you decided to get your ass kicked on this breezy summer night or do you often go for walks antagonizing everyone you walk by hoping they clock you one?”

“Sorry, not all of us subscribe to the Billy Hargrove method of making friends,” Steve replied and Billy almost laughed. “Why are you here? And by here, I mean sitting next to me, driving me home in the middle of the night after picking my ass up off the side of the road?”

“Who said I was talking you home?” Billy said. Steve didn’t answer. Billy drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “You made my sister worry about you. You left the kids alone at the pool. The Wheeler’s had to take Max home so I could finish my shift because their ride dumped them without an explanation,” Billy looked at Steve, who was stubbornly staring out the window. “Care to explain now, considering that I’ve been sent on a search and rescue mission?”

Steve sent him a dirty look. Billy didn’t care in the slightest, and it must have shown because Steve mellowed out a little. “Why the hell do you care? Last month you tried to end the world and now you’re driving me around town preaching for heart-to-hearts?” He must have seen Billy flinch, hard, because his expression immediately softened and he slowly leant away from Billy, some of the fight leaving the set of his shoulders. He looked like he wanted to reach out, but didn’t. “Ah crap- man, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. It’s just… it’s been a long couple of months, is all. My bad.”

Billy wanted to grit his teeth, pull the car over and shove Harrington’s ass back out into the darkness, but that wouldn’t really make the best first impression. “You know, you kids all seem to think like I’m nothing but an evil peace of shit come to steal your firstborn babies and cut your dick off to sacrifice to Satan, but you have no idea who I am. Maybe think for a second that I’m being sincere, just this once, and that I actually give a fuck about whether you live and die, if only for my sister's sake.”

Looking away again, Steve seemed to think this over, at least partially before he licked his lips and sighed heavily. His face was coated in still-drying blood, and Billy reached into the glove box and shoved a couple of un-used hankies at him. “I just… I needed to clear my head.” He said as he began to wipe at his face. “Things have been kinda rough at home and my dad- eh, it doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about it.”

“Nah man, I get it,” Billy said as he drove idly through the streets. “Family can be tough, fucked up even. You don’t need to explain yourself to me. To Max, well- that’s probably a different problem. You did abandon her at the pool with no way to get home. But with me, I’m not too fussed about your personal life.”

Steve looked at him strangely. “Thanks.”

“Although,” Billy continued and Steve immediately groaned. “You never did tell me why those jerks were beating you up back there, and for that, I _do_ expect an explanation.”

Chewing on his cheeks, Steve looked furious at being asked such a question, but eventually, he answered. “Yeah, well, if you suddenly went from the most popular kid in school to the biggest dweeb in the history of Hawkins High just because some new kid was better than you, I’m sure you'd expect a group of your ex-friends to treat you like a piece of shit too.”

Billy frowned. He didn’t know Steve very well, but that description didn’t seem to fit. “Dweeb? What makes you a dweeb? If it’s that haircut, I totally agree, but other than that, I can’t think of anything.”

“Hanging out with a bunch of kids doesn’t really make you the most popular,” Steve replied. “And my free time is taken up by babysitting your sister and her friends.”

“If it’s any consolation, those kids would probably be dead if you weren’t there for them,” Billy said. “I know my sister, and she isn’t much of a fighter, at least not to other people, anyway. She fights me all the time, but I don’t think that counts.”

Steve was smiling now, and it was a little strange for Billy because he had never actually seen Steve smile. The closest thing was a grimace. “You’d be surprised.” He laughed. “Max… she can fight with the best of them. She’s fierce. And she’s a pretty good driver too. She drove all of us to that shit show to get rid of the demo-dogs underground, and none of us died, so I guess she had a good teacher.”

_Damn right she did_, Billy thought but didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say, but Max had insisted that he made up with Steve, so he would have to figure something out. “I almost forgot that,” he said instead. “You all, taking my car and driving off into the night, leaving me alone in that cabin in the woods.”

“I didn’t forget,” Steve said and yeah, Billy thought that was fair. “That was the night you followed us and tried to kill Lucas.”

“I didn’t follow you, and I didn’t try to kill Sinclair,” Billy objected. “Mrs Wheeler told me where you would be, and I only wanted to scare the kid, make him leave Max alone. I wasn’t going to hurt him too much.”

Steve’s brow furrowed. “Yeah, you also tried to kill me, twice, and the only reason we were able to stop you from killing the rest of us was for Max to drug you and throw your ass outside, so consider the rest of us ‘scared’ as well.”

Taking a deep breath, Billy gripped the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles turned white. He felt that anger welling up inside him, the anger that was amplified by the Mind Flayer taking over his mind and his body and his soul, and he struggled to keep it in check. He wanted to lash out at Steve, with words and fists, but that wasn’t what Max would want, and he really doesn’t want Max to be disappointed in him. Besides, Steve looked like shit already. Billy didn’t need to make it worse than it already was.

“You don’t understand,” he said, surprisingly quiet, and Steve actually looked over at him. Billy kept his eyes on the road. “And you never will understand. I was sent to get Max, and I wasn’t going to go home without her. I _couldn’t_ go home without her. I’d already gotten in trouble enough because I didn’t know where she was, and if I had come home and she wasn’t with me…” he trailed off. Steve was still looking at him with that strange, indescribable look. But he was listening. That was the strangest part. “I’d decided on the way that if it meant getting Max home, I was willing to make the rest of you afraid of me or hurt some of you just to make it happen.”

There was silence. Steve swallowed. “Billy does your dad hit-”

“So it’s probably a good thing that you were there,” Billy interrupted quickly before Steve could even finish that sentence. “Because if I didn’t kick your ass, it was going to be Sinclair or whichever one of the tots that got in my way.”

He knew that Steve was looking at him, putting the pieces together, looking over all his bruises and scars and categorising them with everything else but he didn’t give him the satisfaction of acknowledgement, and eventually Steve dropped the subject. “Wait,” he said sharply, eyeing Billy. “Did you say Mrs Wheeler told you? Mike’s mum? Is that why you’re always looking at each other at the pool? Are you and Mike’s mum _dating_?”

Billy couldn’t help himself from laughing, a deep belly laugh that made him throw his head back against the headrest. “Dating? Nah man, she’s not my type. I might be hers, but she’s _definitely_ not mine.”

“Then why were you at Mike’s house?” Steve sounded outraged. “And why do you keep giving her eyes at the pool? I mean, you give all the mums heart eyes and all that crap, but I didn’t know you were into them.”

“I’m not into them,’ Billy said. It was funny if he thought about it. “Like I said, not my type. They look at me, and I look back. Not my fault. Flirting gets you a long way if you try hard enough, and depending on the person, I don’t have to try at all.”

“So you convinced Mrs Wheeler to tell you where we were because you _flirted_ with her?”

“I just told her that I was worried about my dear little sister who had snuck out and gotten lost. Don’t get your pants in a bunch, I didn’t hurt her.” _Not that time, anyway,_ he didn’t say. “I’m not going to steal a married woman from her family, even though I _totally_ could.”

Steve looked very uncomfortable, “So your type is mothers without a family? Noted.”

“I’m not into older women at all, for your information,” Billy said. “If you must know, I prefer a big ass and a huge set of-”

“Ok, ok, that’s enough,” Steve shouted and Billy cackled. Anything to make Harrington uncomfortable, Billy would happily do, even if it made him uncomfortable too. Steve reached for the door handle. “This is fine. You can just drop me off here and I’ll walk down.”

Billy tutted as he locked the car door to keep Steve from jumping out before Billy was done with him. “No can do, Harrington. Max told me to keep an eye on you and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. 'Kiss and make up', she said.”

Stiffly, Steve eyed him. “If you even _think_ about kissing me, I’ll break your nose.”

“Understood,” Billy laughed. “Why are you so uptight?”

“Why are you such an asshole?”

Instead of answering, Billy licked his lips and stared at the road disappearing under the tires of his Camaro. Steve hissed. “Shit- sorry. It’s been a bad night. My bad.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry.” Billy was definitely not looking at Steve now. “I’m used to it. Where’s your house?”

“The one around the corner,” Steve said, side-eying Billy as he drove, and Billy resolutely ignored him. “What was it like? Being under the Mind Flayers control?”

“I don’t remember it,” Billy lied and sped up in a desperate attempt to get to Steve’s house as fast as possible. “I know that I did bad things to people who didn’t deserve it, but I don’t know what I did.”

Billy pulled up the driveway to Steve’s house, a building much larger and nicer than Billy had expected, and the only other car was Steve’s. All the lights were off inside the house and it didn’t look like anyone was home at the moment, though his parents could have probably already been in bed. It _was_ late. “Are your parents going to freak if they see you like that? Beaten to shit, I mean. I’m sure they’re used to your regular brand of ugly.”

“They’re not home,” Steve said, and Billy filed that away for later. “Thanks for dropping me off.”

“No problem,” Billy said, though he wasn’t sure why.

Steve made no move to get out of the car and Billy didn’t make him. For a strange few moments, there was a wave of peace between them, almost a fractured friendship that could someday be whole, but that was probably just Billy talking nonsense. Max had just gotten into his head, is all. Friends? With Steve Harrington? Who the hell was he kidding?

Instead of throwing Steve out of the car, Billy killed the ignition and pulled his packet of cigarettes from the glovebox. He didn’t offer one to Steve, but he put them on the dash, insinuating that Steve could help himself to one. After a moment, Steve did and lit it with his own lighter that he fished out of his back pocket.

“I almost killed you, you know,” Steve said suddenly, and Billy wasn’t even surprised. Everyone who he had ever met had wanted to kill him at some point or another. “I mean, we both know I could have done it, with my baseball bats and raw skill and things.” He was looking at the window. “Hanging out with a bunch of kids already makes me lose a bunch of cool points, but then this hot hunk comes to school and just wipes the floor with every person he looks at, and suddenly all the people I thought were my friends were in your corner, and I just wanted you to get hell out of school by any means necessary. But you’re… actually not that bad of a guy.”

“Yeah, well, don’t tell anyone,” Billy said gruffly, blowing smoke out of his open window. _You think I'm hot?_ He thought but didn't say. “You’ll ruin my reputation.”

Steve laughed at that, and it took everything in Billy’s power not to laugh back. “I don’t think anything could possibly ruin your reputation.” He joked. “Except maybe being possessed by a demon and killing half the town, but I don’t think that counts.” Billy didn’t answer. Steve bit his lip but didn’t apologise. Billy just decided to ignore him.

“Any particular reason why the folks aren’t home?” Billy nodded his chin towards the empty house, and effectively changed the subject.

“Business trips,” Steve rubbed the back of his neck. “They like their business trips.”

Billy snorted. “The only kind of trip I’ve been on was the travel from California to here. I don’t know what kind of job you need to be paid to go on vacation, but that’s what I want to do.”

“As far as I know, it isn’t very great,” Steve said, but he didn’t seem to have his heart in it. He cleared his throat and looked like he was preparing for something. “You know, it’s ok if you don’t like being home. I mean, I don’t like being home, and my parents aren’t even around, so I guess you not wanting to be around your dad and step-mum makes a lot of sense.”

Before Steve had finished speaking, Billy had already stiffened, but Steve continued. “And I mean, I guess you’re not the worst person I’ve ever met, and we’re around the same age and Max wants us to be friends now or whatever, so if your dad does things that is just absolutely horrible, you know where I live and that I’m always home, so you can come over any time for a beer or a smoke or a chat or something.”

“Get out of the car Harrington,” Billy bit down hard on his cigarette, so hard he started to taste grit between his teeth.

Steve looked at him, betrayed. “What?”

“What part of _'get out of the fucking car'_ do you not understand?” Billy snapped.

“The hell man?” Steve frowned. “I was trying to be nice here? Why the fuck are you kicking me in the balls and treating me like I just told you that your sister is sleeping with Lucas? I don’t think you understand how hard it is for me to be nice to someone like you, someone who deserves a beating more than anyone else.”

“Hey, I have a thought,” Billy said bitterly, and he was already regretting what he was going to say before he even said it, but at this point, he was willing to do or say anything if it meant getting Steve out of his car, and making him hate Billy all over again. “Maybe your parents are never around because they can’t stand the sight of you anymore?”

Gritting his teeth, Steve took reached for the door handle but made sure to throw his head back to send a final comment at Billy. “Oh yeah, and maybe your mum left you alone with your fucking dad because she was trying to get far away from _you_.”

Billy was so shocked that he didn’t even have a retort. How the hell did he know about his mum? Had Max told him? Billy sure as hell hadn’t said a word about it to anyone, ever. Steve slammed the door, hard, and stuck his head back in through the open window, cigarette glowing brightly at his side. “You know, this is the most I’ve ever liked you, Hargrove. And I could almost pretend that we could be friends, eventually. But congratulations. Like with everything else, you sure as hell fucked it up.”

And then his head disappeared from the window. He walked up the driveway to his house, stomped the cigarette out on the floor, and walked into the empty building.

The Camaro roared to life and Billy was speeding away down the streets of Hawkins until he got to the border and the Hawkins goodbye sign came into view. He could go back, go back home to California and forget all about Hawkins and Steve fucking Harrington and he could be happy again and-

He couldn’t do that to Max. _Wouldn’t_ do it to Max. Wouldn’t leave her just like his mother left him.

Billy turned the car around and drove back to where his sister was most likely waiting for him.

**Author's Note:**

> God, it's my birthday in 4 days, why am I even writing this crap 😂😂
> 
> I know that the comments at the end were harsh but I needed some reason for Billy to go back to California so I just have to swing with it. Hope you enjoyed it x
> 
> I KNOW IM WRITING A LOT ABOUT BILLY BUT I JUST LOVE HIM ALRIGHT AND JUST WANT HIM TO BE HAPPY BECAUSE HE GOT THE SHORT END OF THE STICK IN THE SHOW AND HE DOESN'T DESERVE ALL THE PAIN AND SUFFERING HE GOES THROUGH!!! sorry


End file.
